Bullet-point Report: Ko

If someone wants to make a case for the abolishment of song and dance from our cinema, Ko would be Exhibit A. A needless love track necessitates needless love songs, and even the one song that would seem to be necessary – the one in the flashback – is shot so arbitrarily as to be rendered needless.

But away from the love track, away from the songs, away from the flatulent first half where pretty much nothing happens, you can see why KV Anand wanted to make this movie. The thriller in his mind was probably the one that begins in the second half, the story of an ordinary man who finds himself in over his head as he unearths an extraordinary conspiracy.

But, of course, you cannot have an “ordinary man” as the hero of a mainstream Tamil movie, so he gets a snazzy bike (too snazzy, you think, for a photographer with a newspaper) on which he makes snazzy action-moves. Even towards the end, where an “ordinary man” would have gathered the incriminating evidence and fled, this hero sticks around to fight the villain, mano a mano.

All of which leads to the question: How do you infuse the slow-building mechanics of the paranoia thriller (say, Brian de Palma’s Blow Out, where John Travolta was an “ordinary” sound effects guy who uncovers a conspiracy, or Alan J Pakula’s The Parallax View, where Warren Beatty played an “ordinary” news reporter who uncovers a conspiracy) into the larger-than-life, hero-centric Tamil movie? Is this even possible? Or is Ko just not very successful (though watchable on a vague, corner-of-the-eye level, thanks largely to the adrenalin), and there’s perhaps another filmmaker who can make this work?

The Spider-Man movies, perhaps, yield a better template. After all, they’re based on a newspaper photographer who’s as much a superhero as the Tamil film hero.

Random Question No. 1: Why plant a villain’s mole in the newspaper office and reduce him to a silly punch line for office jokes? For all the menace he unleashes, he could just as easily have been the film’s comedian.

Random Question No. 2: With all the following-the-leads capabilities required of the hero, why not make him a news reporter instead of a photographer? But maybe this is a point only journalists will fully appreciate, being aware of the function of the photographer in the newsroom hierarchy. I’m not saying it’s fair. I’m just saying it’s there.

That said, it’s amusing how a profession as unglamorous as journalism can be made to look in the movies. My parents should see Ko. They’ll think I lead James Bond’s life. Pussy galore, indeed.

Random Question No. 3: A tripod in the middle of a forest? Seriously?

Random Question No. 4: Is there anyone still interested in songs shot in National Geographic locations? With choreographed one-two-three-four steps? In the middle of two dramatic scenes?

Random Question No. 5: Is Harris Jayaraj ever going to step out of his comfort zone?

Is the heroine a fearless reporter or a damsel in distress? Make up your freaking mind.

There’s a hint of a more sophisticated movie every time the photographer-hero encounters a tragedy (a burning hut, a man with a lost limb) and elects to take pictures instead of actually doing something to help. He is, at once, providing a valuable service by letting society see, through his pictures, what he is seeing, and reducing himself to a mere voyeur.

The big reveal about a key character, I think, could have been the interval point, which is instead a chaotic mess that makes you wonder if anything in the first half was worth the price of the ticket.

Ko is a series of big scenes with no transitions, no segues, no scenes that just stop to smell the scenery. But that, probably, could be said of many other movies as well. And the frequent nudges to topical/political headlines do little more than remind us that Tamil masala movies work best when set in an anything-happens la-la land.

Ko means king. Don’t quiz me on the relevance. I went to the press conference of KO where approximately 100 journalists asked him about Ko’s meaning. He answered the question a 100 times. And then, suddenly, one tall, brown-haired, smart-talking model-journalist walked up to K V Anand just before he was asked to get on to the stage to address the press, stopped him, and asked him this: “I know Ko means king. But why is this film named ‘Ko’?” Anand looked as if he was asked an out-of-syllabus question. He said in his usual style, “Hmmmmmm…Ko means king and this hero fights like a king.”

The mascara sporting model-journalist didn’t quite expect such an answer, and she slightly raised her eye brows as if to show her disbelief, and flashed her “everything is no nice and cheesy” smile when she found Anand too wasn’t prepared to answer it. She moved on to her next question…”So, how has Jeeva done this role….”

The song which irritated me to the core is the song which comes when renuka has a robber drop in and jeeva comes at the right time .Fine, but after X’s death ?????? There was a BIGH sigh in escape .

The ‘reveal’ , if done in the interval – it would have gone the adukalam way – but such movies work , only if the characterisations are strong. Ko/Ayan , works only with twists at screenplay and the characterisations are done to that depth. ( Unlike bala !)

BTW, even ayan had less effective segues – but it had a hero who masks the ineffectiveness of the scene !

Blow out – what a beautiful climax and what a perfect “post climax” (would be a shame to call it anti climax) who would have thought about the “Scream” being used to deliver an emotional punch like that?(So Balaesque coming from an English movie). Travolta – every bit believable as a wrong man in the wrong place, fighting his self doubts – every bit heroic in “not being heroic”. Thanks for reminding me of that wonderful movie.

Random Answer No 1 : The mole in the office is to show the Naxal’s penetration. It helped communicate the idea of Vasanth pairing up with Naxals.

Random Answer No 2 : A news reporter would have to question, take sides , pitch etc . A photographer is a much more neutral role from a layman’s point of view, so the Hero comes across as a normal guy than a rebel or vigilante. This bodes well for the juxtaposition of the hero in the given milieu. Moreover, a lot of interesting subplots revolved around the photo journalist idea.

Random Answer No 3 : Makes complete sense from a technical point of view. Night photography requires absolute precision in terms of exposure. The Shutter speed would be quite slow (to allow more light onto the frame) and therefore, going hand held is least advisable as there would loads of shake( and hence, no focus). Since they also showed him covering the entire ceremony, tripod makes sense in every sense of it’s purpose.

Random Answer No 4 : Yes, a lot of people are and were interested in those breathtaking locations. Works as a relief from the fast spaced screenplay and is well within the realms of this film’s grammar.

Random Answer No 5 : Going by his last 2 works, answer is No. The fact that one can find songs from Engeyum Kadhal and Ko ( back to back albums ) that resemble each others, says a lot about his palette. But point being, he knows how to sell it and the last time I checked, he was doing pretty good.

I’ll probably conclude by saying that Ko delivered on what it promised. I am hardly a fan of such gun-ho technically good masala films but I was satisfied with what I saw. If the objective was to provide unassuming entertainment comprising several ingredients of drama and do it with a bit of finesse, Ko does just that in my opinion.

Whoa Rohith…you might as well have added the link to your review and said please go here to read another review trashing the movie.. Why hide behind the credibility (or lack of it) of another portal to express your own views…

Baddy,
I’m just back from watching the movie in Bangalore and the only thing I felt at the end of it was that somehow it didnt quite all add up… and then I read your report and the comments section and I see EXACTLY what the problem is which I could not quite distill into clear words – thanks 🙂

I second S.Aravind. The movie was good. Infact, there were claps for the locations in “Amalidhumali” song in the theatre I saw (which was surprising).
The “naxal” group and their activities (?!) for whatsover purpose(?!) belong to some la-la land but most of the movie otherwise was a neat masala mix.

I dont see any honest opinion here…are you a pefect clean film maker…? be honest..didnt you enjoying watching the movie? Come-on man its after all a movie..whats the basic objective of a movie?–to entertain…Definitely KO entertains…Awesome cinematography, wonderful locations, believabe CG, and good fight scenes and foot taping music…what more do you want?

There are no movie perfect here..mind it…you have to neglect some logical moments in the whole entertaining package…

I’m not a Jiva fan or KV anandh fan..but i liked the movie inspite of some illogical scenes..and all the north indian friends who watched with me like it too…

excellent ans frm aravind, i watched it today and liked it a lot kv anand gives a realistic take of current political situation peppered with some commercial elements so that end product is watchable by general audience unlike some boring movies, cinematography deserves credit ,,, i dont know why the reviewer thrashed the film may be because he is well experienced in directing a “Perfect” film without any masala items

i remember a line from kandukondein kandukondein where ajith’s father tells him that we Indians always love varieties of food in our meal rather than a single plate of bread and butter like the westerners.. so reviewers grow up dont compare evry film with world cinema, enjoy our style!!!!

Needless songs. Needless situations agreed. The club dance number was a joke. I can forgive the Kuviamilla song as it was a hit song that everyone wanted to see on screen. The rest were impeding forces on the narrative. And, even as standalone music videos, they were all the faarin location types which could have very well shot on a green screen. I’m all for Ko to become Exhibit A.

But, can someone sign up a superstar MD like Harris Jeyaraj and consequently ‘delete’ his songs from the movie saying they are distracting ? Or tell him, ” Boss, we have room for only 1 song” ? I doubt he would sign on the project in the first place.

Harris moving out of his comfort zone? You are kidding, right? 🙂 For a while, the guitar plucks (synthesized usually, mind you) were kinda fun, but now it’s really getting stale. One could easily do a piece on the formulaic way HJ composes music now, with his cohort of lyricists

I always used to refer to him as Harris “Gibberish” Jeyaraj. For a while, he has been operating in his comfort zone marked by occassional flourishes such as “Karka Karka” from VV etc. Also, BGM is something he should really stay away from. That requires a completely different skillset. Though I may come across as being negative (more due to frustration with his current output), I have enjoyed his scores and still love some of the numbers. It’s clear his background is western based orchestration and it shows in his compositions. I do think he has some talent but needs to explore and expand his repertoire. Sometimes I do wonder if this is a case of an instrumentalist getting a chance to become a composer and has now run out of stuff…Sincerely hope that’s not the case.

Hi, I’ve found all your reviews balanced, but this seemed to be too much of a thrashing. 😀 What irked you so much? There was some nice detailing that is hard to find in such movies; like the scene in that unnecessary college song which shows how they get the inspiration for the name siragugal, and the climax near a clinic so as to bring a doctor in. And thanks for reminding of Blowout, btw. 🙂

Enticing (!) Excerpts ;p
– Was interesting to see Udanidhi Stalin grabbing this film also – so many scenes shown in the movie were directly against the DMK!!!! A case of ‘Even if the people want to throw slippers at us its ok – we will start a Slipper Bisiness and make money that way!!!!!” ????? Or a more charitable thought – times they are a changin????
– Piaa’s character is typical of the Kollywood ‘Pupply’ girl. Kollywood manages to get it in its trademark style: Vulgar, Crass and Never in Lip ynch!!!!

For all his technical sophistication,KV Anand appears surprisingly inept in extracting music from his composer.Though his movies seem to get better in terms of commercial viability, he still does not have the X factor in his music.This was the case with Ayan and also his lesser watched debut movie Kana Kandein.Apart from a gorgeous melody called Moolai thirugum, Vidyasagar came up with yawn inducing stuff with the rest of the soundtrack.
Also his trick of casting a likable choco hero in a negative role also seems to be recurring.Prithviraj in Kana Kandein and Ajmal here

I kept feeling that Ko was just waiting to be a Vijay movie. The hero’s characterisation, his “anna”-fying the bigwigs, the two ladies thingy and the final reveal of the key character was so Vijay-like. A little more dramatisisation, and it could be Vijay’s. Also, for some random reason, anytime I hear Chinmayee’s dubbing, I imagine her in the recording studio reading out the lines instead of the actress in the situation! My bad! Does anybody else get distracted by some such useless tidbit? 😀

Yeah Aravind!
I agree with you completely. Ko does not pretend to be an academy award deserving film, it is an unapologetic masala flick and delivers what it promises, leaving the viewer satisfied. It is like particularly delicious junk food not brain food and one should not be confused with the other.

Hello Mr Rangan. A long time reader here but this is my first comment. I just watched Ko (late I know) and have very strong feelings that it was heavily inspired from the Watchmen. Does anyone feel that way?

Ajmal is clearly Ozymandias. Both of them of similar are wlling to sacrifice some of their own kind in order to achieve their political goals. Both are successful and remain innocent in the eyes of the public

Pia’s discovery of Ajmal’s ill intensions and subsequent brutal death is similar to the Comedian.

Jeeva is definitely Rorschach with all the lone investigator vibe going on. The naxalite who gets killed is more or less a sketched out version of the assassin hired by Ozmanydias. The politicians in KO are used as political commentary just as how Nixon was represented in the Watchmen.

Furthermore, both films end with a common idea of having a need to hide a bitter truth for the sake of a better society. Even the important events in both films are mainly explosions.

Overall I hate this film for being such a rip off but I love it for being smart enough to fool many of us viewers.

yeah! yeah – it had its faults – Errr…. a land mine in a second floor room? The Naxalites with their too-obstuse motive, the simpering heroine overdressed and over made up for a gritty reporter role, The mole who fizzled , the killer toting the same cloth bag, the songs that distracted and detracted ….and yet, I enjoyed the movie. Why? for one thing unlike most movies where you can predict the ending 5 minutes into the movie Ko actually kept me hooked. Jiva segued from goofy to heroic and was convincing always. (The fight scenes were well choreographed) Pia Bajpai – a breath of fresh air.Liked the office politics withthe editor resigning on moral grounds – etc. Completely decent masala fare without vulgar comedy and mindless dishum dishum. I like eeeet!

Hey BR you are obviously no photographer – To do night shots or any low light shots (without using a flash) you would definitely need a tripod. NOT having one would have been another goofworthy mention!